Employee Fired for Porn E-mails Claims Disability
Discrimination

February 21, 2007 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - A US District
judge in Arizona ruled an America West employee fired for
distributing sexually explicit and sometimes pornographic
e-mails via the company e-mail system did not prove that he
was singled out for termination due to his multiple
sclerosis.

CNET News reported that the judge agreed with
Martin Sheville that the company ignored a “locker
room atmosphere” within its load-planning
department, but said there was no evidence Sheville was
fired because of his disability. The judge pointed out
that a supervisor who also had multiple sclerosis
remained an employee.

After America West’s director of operations was
made aware of employee misuse of the company’s
Internet and e-mail systems, he ordered an investigation.
A number of racy and graphic e-mails were found to have
been sent by Sheville to various coworkers, but one in
particular, entitled “Wicked Weasel,” showed
scantily clad women and full-frontal nudity.

After reviewing the findings of the investigation,
America West fired Sheville and the employee who sent him
the “Wicked Weasel” e-mail. Five other employees were
disciplined, but the company said they were not fired
because their e-mails did not contain frontal nudity,
according to CNET.

Sheville filed suit against his employer under the
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), pointing out that
other workers sent the same e-mails during work hours.
Another worker even testified that sending, receiving,
and viewing naked women on America West’s computers
during work hours was common.

America West’s managers responded that
“after reviewing the frontal nudity depicted in the
(Wicked Weasel e-mail) and comparing them to the e-mails
sent by other members of the department, none of which
contained frontal nudity and most of which contained no
nudity at all, (we) made the determination to terminate
(the Wicked Weasel offenders) and to provide progressive
counseling to the other affected members of the
department,” CNET reported.

The court decided there was no direct evidence to
support Sheville’s claim that he was terminated due to
his multiple sclerosis.